Category: Compassion

Today I honor a very personal anniversary, the 19th one in fact. This special day marks nineteen years since passing through the portal of having cancer in my womb and enduring a sorrowful give-away at the age of 27.

What a passage it was, and continued to be, long after that fateful day nineteen years ago. I still remember it vividly. I’m certain I always will.

What I know now is that I am a wiser woman for having had to give my womb away at such a tender age and live without the fulfillment of my dream of a second child. I am wiser for the courage it called forth in me and for the compassion it drove home in my core. It IS indeed our wounds that allow the light in and allow it in ways that we would never have dreamed of….

I may not have given birth to another child, but I did give rebirth then and many times since to this woman that lives in my body. She knows a way of loving now that is far more expansive than any body’s womb could ever have held. That give-away led to a gift that I continually give and receive now, through my way of being in life and through what I am able to give life to in other ways.

So today, for all that it carries in meaning for me, I honor it.
I light this candle and I honor it.

I honor the wisps of grief and tenderness that remain, even after nearly two decades.
I honor the dreams and the unanswered prayers. I honor the prayers that came to be and the little life that did not.

I honor BEING alive myself, living the blessed life that I have.

I honor my husband and daughter who’ve been with me through that and much more.
I honor my family and friends who encircled me then and now.
I honor those with whom I’ve walked the path of life, whether it has been for a few moments or for many years.

I honor all the myriad of experiences, feelings, realizations, lessons and evolutions that have been lived these past nineteen of my forty-six years of this life.

I honor my own process of living, now more than ever before, and I honor the woman that I Am with all my scars, flaws, frailties, insecurities, eccentricities and uncertainties that are partnered with my continual courage, compassion, creativity, myriad talents, softness, strength, intelligence, intuition, flowing and deepening knowing.

I honor all that I continue to discover and to offer.
I honor life lived authentically and lovingly.

This spontaneously began singing in me yesterday out of nowhere, right after I’d had my own challenging feelings of major worry arise… It is not a song I ever think of, so I immediately felt the calm of my own higher wisdom and precious unseen comforting.. ❤ It was very much like angelic music straight to my heart in that moment. May it comfort you too. D*

Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get be brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna be easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get be brighter

Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Right now, right now
(You just wait and see how things are gonna be)

I do… I truly do fall in love a little bit with anyone who shows me their soul.

My heart opens that much wider to feel even more love with every experience I have of someone dropping their guard, shedding a layer of armor, opening their heart, sharing a bit of their truth, owning their worth or claiming their Soulful expression…

Every time someone does this our world becomes a more real, genuine and beautiful place.

I awoke this morning with this song playing over…. and over… and over… again inside me… “I’ll Stand By You.”

I began to hear it as the Beloved singing to me, for me.
LISTEN. Imagine the Divine conveying every word and each feeling just for You. ❤

That, that is how unconditionally we are truly loved. Wow…. I will be walking through the world today feeling that Truth more deeply. Love to you all, D*

Oh, why you look so sad?
Tears are in your eyes
Come on and come to me now
Don’t be ashamed to cry
Let me see you through
’cause I’ve seen the dark side too
When the night falls on you
You don’t know what to do
Nothing you confess
Could make me love you less

I’ll stand by you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you
I’ll stand by you

So if you’re mad, get mad
Don’t hold it all inside
Come on and talk to me now
Hey, what you got to hide?
I get angry too
Well I’m a lot like you
When you’re standing at the crossroads
And don’t know which path to choose
Let me come along
’cause even if you’re wrong

I’ll stand by you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you
I’ll stand by you
Take me in, into your darkest hour
And I’ll never desert you
I’ll stand by you

And when…
When the night falls on you, baby
You’re feeling all alone
You won’t be on your own

I’ll stand by you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you

I’ll stand by you
Take me in, into your darkest hour
And I’ll never desert you
I’ll stand by you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you
I’ll stand by you

Many of us have enormous hearts and big visions. We long to see people living their fullest expressions united together in genuine collaboration with mutual trust, authenticity and acceptance while working together toward common goals. Many of us are continually taking action and creating this in our personal lives, communities and careers. I am.

This vision begins… within. Many of my colleagues and friends are embracing their own empowerment. They are continuously learning, teaching and modeling the “true power” that comes from withIN. We are in a time now for discovering this power inside ourselves, each and every ONE of us.

It’s also true that ‘discernment’ is key. Empowerment relies upon us listening to and heeding the direction of our own inner compass. Others may not respond well to this. They may truly prefer us unempowered. We must empower ourselves anyway and learn to collaborate. I had many lessons around this in 2013 and the early days of 2014 and witnessed many more. This is not always easy to navigate and those who teach it are continuously learning themselves.

One instance, one lesson in particular, was immensely challenging for me personally. I know I will continue learning and growing from it for a very long while to come. I also know now that even though my heart may carry a true message (of healing community, allowing forgiveness and renewing love) I must be clear and discerning about how, where and when I share it. I did not do this entirely well in that instance and yet I trust some universal plan has unfolded. It seems it had to happen. I am called now from deep within to truly walk my talk now. I bless that situation with Love and let go. The energy of possibility and limitless love allows for so much that I cannot see. I will trust that. I will act now from renewed integrity to myself and others. My inner compass is recalibrated. I appreciate what I have shared and learned. Now, life moves forward. There is no going back to what was. There is only what IS and creating what will BE.

I know I can choose and continue to choose to believe in people and the higher vision while being discerning in the day-to-day living of life. Trusting my own intelligence and inner hit of intuition is key and all of us are learning that more and more. As I wrote in a personal post weeks ago, I have never in my life burned any bridges. Relationships flow and change with the fluid nature of Life and growth, within us and around us. May we always bless them with love. They may be only for a reason or a season or they may return to us with renewal. Let us remain open to possibility yet always true to our own knowing, our own inner compass.

We all continuously learn and grow yet must always take responsibility for the energy we bring into each moment of life and give out to others in thought, word and deed.

Love is the constant and the ultimate truth to live by. Kindness is key. What we do to others, we do to ourselves. It’s time to realize how truly interconnected we are. We have got to walk our talk!

One of my dearest friends, Edgy MysticMelynnda, a trusted colleague/peer/mentor/sister/friend, said to me in early December 2013, “All that triggers separation is not from Source. Stand in the center of your Beingness.” That phrase of wise insight simply poured through her. THAT was empowering and a powerful validation at the time. It continues to be.

My own father once told me I was THE most nonjudgmental person he has ever known. One of my best friends agreed yet told me I had often saved all of my judgment for myself. Now, I have had a lifetime of learning about the energy of judgment. I simply can’t inflict that type of violence on others or myself anymore. Intentional loving choices prevail more now, from the inside out for me. There’s plenty of imperfection along with plenty of gentle strength, integrity, ever-deepening wisdom and profound love.

I will continue to renew and do this. May we all “stand in the center of our own Beingness.”

It’s truly empowering to know we get to choose for ourselves, every moment of every day, with every thought, every word and every action. We are that powerful. We get to choose.

I CHOOSE LOVE….. over and over and over again in every moment that I can…..

I choose to create from that place and collaborate with others who make that same choice.

I CHOOSE LOVE.

Now let’s create that world we envision, one choice at a time, together.

It has been an especially tumultuous week for many that I know, and many more, in our world…. I’m sure many of you have felt this and witnessed it.

As Matt Licata shared in his poem of the ‘Beloved’, we are being called to dive into the depths of our broken open hearts.

No one can truly do this for us but ourselves. Yet, we are not alone, ever. As we witness those dear to us in profound pain or confusion, we can hold them. This ‘holding’ of another is not always a physical act of touch, words or support.

It can potently be an act of energetically holding the space of deep trust…..
Holding deep trust that they will fall INto themselves in this process.

In whatever way we are called, may we ‘hold’ one another through our processes of awakening and becoming…. of owning and loving all of who we are. There is so much love here, within and around each of us. I ‘hold’ this vision with you. ‘Holding’ on to Love, always. DeAnne, Conscious Connections NOW, Sacred Circle Retreats

This post by Matt Licata stirred me today as I witness and ‘hold’ dear ones who are struggling and yet emerging into the fullness of who they are.

“Will you hold another who has been touched by the darkness within? Will you love them enough to allow them to fall apart in your arms? To unravel, to become unglued, and to feel unbearably lost as the wisdom of their process unfolds? Will you be the space in which they can finally meet the feelings and emotions that have been kept at bay for a lifetime? To love another in this way you must toucheverything that is unresolved within you – all of your own unmet sadness, abandoned shame, discarded grief, and deserted aloneness. You are willing to no longer stay safe on the sidelines. You are willing to get messy. Even gooey and drippy.

Will you set aside your need for the other to change, to be different, to be “cured,” to be transformed, and to be healed? Will you resist the temptation to talk them out of their embodied experience, to tell them everything will be okay, and to dishonor the creativity hidden inside the unwanted? Will you allow your heart to break with them, and endure the urge inside you to put it all back together again? Will you fall into the unknown with them, holding them close, and provide a home for their brokenness?

To care about others, yourself, and the world in this way you must stay radically embodied. You are no longer interested in transcending suffering, confusion, and neurosis, for you see these as thundering expressions of the path itself. Please don’t turn away. As your attention moves out into the conceptual world, return to the wild intelligence of your body, for it is there that love is working behind the scenes, giving birth to its sweet activity in this dimension.

It is in this factory of love, which is operating as the temple of your own body, where the sacred world is revealing its essential secrets of healing: there is no “other,” there has never been an “other,” and there could never be an “other.” There is only the reflection of your own being.

Love is taking the pieces of your heart and is using them to re-assemble the world in front of you, each as an invitation sent to reveal to you the preciousness of what is really happening here.” ~ Matt Licata

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”
~ Mother Teresa

“I knew what my job was; it was to go out and meet the people and love them.”
~ Princess Diana

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
~ Mother Teresa”

I think the biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I want to do that.”
~ Princess Diana

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” ~ Mother Teresa

“Every one of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” ~ Princess Diana

At the time that Princess Diana and Mother Teresa passed from this world, I was living with cancer of the womb. I was aware of the legacy of love and the empowerment of mothering that these women represented at the very time that I was letting go of birthing more children. There was a soulful feeling of significance for me then. I continue to feel it. To this very day, I feel a calling to “spread love” everywhere I can. ~ DeAnne

One of my dearest friends, soul sisters and collaborators at Sacred Circle Retreats wrote this message this morning:

“We are all being nurtured and guided by Divine Feminine energy to expand our heart space. Let go of the idea we need protection from heartbreak…as the continual expansion cannot be contained. Welcome the coming changes without expectations. Let love guide you into the next broken open moment. M*”

I am experiencing this today…Thank you for this message and guidance Melynnda, Edgy Mystic.

As I slowly take my time to place lights on our holiday tree and allow my entire body its healing assimilation from an extended cold, I was listening to a Super Soul Sunday episode. It features Mark Nepo. I had watched another with him yesterday, and I marveled at the timing of Jackie sharing her gorgeous Prayer post by him at Sacred Circle Retreats today. Oh how our lives so often parallel with our dearest ones. We all know that well.

Moments ago listening to Mark discuss his journey through cancer and how we have all experienced loss in some way my heart broke open even further. He said, “What opens us is never as important as what it opens….” I was awash in tears as the rain continues to cascade outside. For me, memories of the trials of cancer, the loss of bearing children and all those other seemingly overwhelming moments of challenge in my life just melted into right now. I AM HERE BEING. I am here being more of who I always wished to be, accepting the constancy of change and flow, of uncertainty and fresh awareness, of it All. I looked down at all the colorful Christmas tree lights in my hand and felt that Christ that lies within us all. The blessed tears still flow… There are those moments when we truly bless the journey and where we are in the moment, and we feel the PRESENCE residing within and through it all. This was one of those moments.

“What opens us is never as important as what it opens….” ~ Mark Nepo

Yes, truly ~ “Let love guide you into the next broken open moment.” M*